New Tint = No Reception

[kwimberly]

I wired my XM antenna up through the center child seat restraint and stuck it on the metal speaker grill. It was nice and clean, and I got great reception when my windows were stock.

Now that I have premium Llumar with metal characteristics, my reception has turned to crap.

Searched but didn't find anything directly on point - just one post that said reception definitely can be affected by tint.

Anyone have any creative satellite antenna installs? I hate to run it outside the car, but I might have to.

[NateW]

i use llumar and your problem is most likely due to the fact that it is a metallized based film. Except a few of the higher end cars, most satellite/regular antenna's are external mounted.

If you want to keep Lumar, I suggest you go back to the shop and ask if they have the ATX series of Llumar film. It has all the benefits of the regular metal film, but with no metal. We sell it as an $100 upgrade. It is warrantied to not block any signals.

[Dolphin18T]

Don't you have the sharkfin on your roof? Just wire it to that.

[kwimberly]

^^ no fin. '03 A4. I might work some slack back in wire and just bump it into the very back of the deck - where the windshield meets the deck. It sucks because I just got my PAC inline noise filter on Friday - that thing is amazing!!! I had terrible white noise and alternator whine on the AUX side of the Dice unit. (The iPod side was already perfect.) Once I put the PAC filter in, the XM via AUX sounded perfect.

[scorneil]

try mounting it under the dash on the metal bracket above the fuse panel - i have my gps antenna there and get great reception. i'm guessing it would work for sat radio too.

i have my sat radio on the dash right where the windshield meets the dash (center of the dash in front of the center speaker). some peeps might not like this solution cause it's visible but i don't really notice it. looks better than mounted outside on the roof or trunk.

[kwimberly]

^^ that's what I'm thinking - the windshield area. I need line of sight, so I don't think the fuse area would work. I might try mounting it behind the little mini-visor under the rearview mirror.